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Topic: Art Glass Pitcher (Read 1150 times)

One of the members pointed out eBay auction 250557997157 to me a few days ago. I didn't recognize the piece as a Dino Martens design and hadn't seen anything he had done that had glass applied to the outside in such a fashion. Does anyone recognize the design? My education on Martens must need some updating.

Did you see how much the pitcher sold for?! It went for something around $1,253.00. I don't know what it was but perhaps he fouled some people or some other people knew what this was.

What the heck was this piece!? :huh: Be warned. It was me who e-maled Anita. I hope I can do this on this forum without getting kicked off. This Ebayer was telling me all kinds of crazy stuff to get me to bid. That is why I e-mailed Anita. You can trust her. I just chalked this up as a learning experience and I DID NOT bid and took her advise. :thup:

Thanks Anita!

tam bam

Mod: edited as per the Board Policy. Please note the following guidelines:

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• If you wish to draw attention to an on-line auction which you consider to be ‘not as described’ you may provide a link to the auction but you should only state that “in my opinion this piece has not been described correctly.” Or, for example, in the case of a signature that you feel is incorrect “the signature does not appear to be genuine.” It would also be advisable to ask if others have any opinion. Do not state anything is a fact, unless you can provide documentary proof!• If it is felt that a posting is taking an unfair position in respect of a person selling on an on-line auction the posting will be removed or edited to remove bias.

No, you certainly wouldn't be kicked off the forum. The board has guidelines covering the raising of potentially inaccurate or misleading eBay listings, and the mods may edit (or delete) your posts accordingly. It is important to raise these issues, but these rules ensure that any statements made are fair to all parties.

...Is there anything remotely like it in the Martens book? (I'm on holiday away from my books right now.)(A slightly flabbergasted) David

I checked Heiremans. The glass looks superficially like the volcano pieces, but the technique is very different. The pitcher in the auction has the colored glass applied to the surface, so there is high relief. Heiremans describes the volcano pieces as being made with ground glass, with the crater effect being created by heating. To me the surface of Martens' volcano pieces appears to be marvered without any significant relief in the topography of the glass. The amount of clear glass would be surprising for a volcano piece, as would the latticino base.

I scouted for a design remotely similar to the pitcher, but found none in the Heiremans book. I know the book is not exhaustive, though, so someone may know something that I don't. The seller told Tami in an email that a VP at Sothesby had identified the piece as Martens a few years ago. It would be nice to locate the piece. I hope the buyer made a good purchase... or sees this and questions the purchase if it is needed.

In looking at the piece, IMHO I strongly doubt the Martens attribution as being accurate. Although Martens did so some work that has an "artistic free-form" feel to it, IMHO he did not do anything quite this loose both in terms of sloppy form and execution. The piece IMHO looks to be quite amateurish in terms of execution.... It has an "uncomfortable" look to it that I would not associate with Martens at all. (or any other quality glass house)

I know that it is also personal preference, but personally, iI think the piece is quite unattractive.... I, personally, do not think it is Martens at all and would also question if it is even Italian in origin.....

I looked at the close-ups of the pitcher that Tami sent me and suspect the piece is Chinese. There is some sloppiness that I wouldn't expect in European glass (except maybe Spanish). The dark applied glass tinged the top part of the latticino in some places. The handle looks like an afterthought. It looks like a single ding would take it off. Yellow latticino is used in many Chinese paperweights, so it is what makes me think China instead of other country-candidates.